Just like Jungle Rat Rob before him, Beach has managed to capture the essence of The Mana Pool.  As I’ve been saying for a very long time now, we’re here for your entertainment first and foremost.  If you learn something along the way, that’s freakin’ great, but our primary function is just to ensure that you have fun listening to us.

And just because he gave it to me, here’s the list of sources that Beach used to make this little bit of awesome.  I hope you all enjoy!

Background song: For You (Eldrazi Stomp Mix) by Spruke
Episode 85 – M10 Rules Update Discussion
Episode 88 – Magic 2010 Preview 2
Episode 97 – Land Before Time
Episode 113 – Multiplayer Mayhem Live
Episode 122 – Multiplayer Mayhem Live 2
Episode 129 – Mortal Instinct Fighter Calibur Vs!
Episode 140 – Duel Decks at Ten Paces
Episode 163 – All of MBS (and Half of Chewie)
Episode 172 – Adventures on Zendikar (Live)
Episode 200 – Blame It On the Listeners
Episode 209 – Dirk and a Half
Episode 213 – Rant Over (DKA Preview 2)
Episode 214 – Crisis II: Dork Harder (DKA Preview 3)
Avant-Card Show Episode 32

But that’s not all!  We did a Story Circle!  If you want to check out the full result list from that, there’s a link right below this paragraph.  And of course we can’t have an episode of The Mana Pool without a requisite amount of random nonsense, right?  Of course not.  It’s there.  Trust me on this.  Would I lie to you?  About the important stuff, that is.  The answer I’m looking for here is no, by the way.  Jeez.
http://themanapool.com/the-deck-box/storycircle217edh/

Follow Jack on Twitter: @JackLacroix

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – What Now My Love by Miss Piggy

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-217-commander-month-you-don-t-know-jack-t765.html
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Hey look, another Story Circle!  Episode 217 featured none other than Jack Lacroix!  You know, that Southern guy from Monday Night Magic, Horde of Notions, and @JackLacroix on Twitter.  You know him.  But we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a Story Circle with Jack, so here it is!

After clicking past one of the legendary monowhite birds from Odyssey block (What? I didn’t want to do a monocolored deck!) I ended up on the Sapling, as you can see in the picture to the right.  We took turns naming off cards (you know, what we do in a Story Circle), which I wrote down so I could make this companion post for the episode.  They’re listed below in the order we came up with them and separated by each round.  I labeled who picked what in the first round – that order applies for the subsequent rounds (you know, so you’ll know who to blame).  If you want commentary and reasoning and whatnot, just listen to the episode!

Sapling of Colfenor
Birthing Pod – Jack
Worldly Tutor – Mike
Treefolk Harbinger – Brian
Dungrove Elder – Dirk
Ghoultree – Chewie

Seedguide Ash
Silverglade Elemental
Sisters of Stone Death
Timber Protector
Liege of the Tangle

Genesis
Spectral Force
Buried Alive
Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Elbrus, the Binding Blade / Withengar Unbound

Corpse Connoisseur
Attrition
Brawn
Thorn Elemental
Shriekmaw

Beacon of Unrest
Greater Good
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Scion of Darkness
Ooze Garden

Puppeteer Clique
Acidic Slime
Mirri the Cursed
Elvish Piper
Ritual of the Machine

Eternal Witness
Grim Flowering
Living Death
Ambush Commander
Mortivore

But because it’s Commander Month, we’ve asked Beach to do an Out of the Deck Box for one of his decks, and he chose the one he’s named Progenitalia and Friends.  Back in Episode 192 I pulled my Progenitalia deck Out of the Deck Box, and it was fascinating to see just how incredibly different Beach’s deck was from mine.  That’s probably because he’s a better player than me, just so we’re clear.  If you want to check out either of these decks, you’ll find a link on the next line down.

Beach’s Progenitalia: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/progenitalia-and-friends/
Chewie’s Progenitalia: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/progenitalia/

We didn’t stop with that though!  We hit up the Random Card button on Gatherer until we bumped into a legendary creature and did a Story Circle! If you want to see the full list for that, it’s right here:
http://themanapool.com/the-deck-box/storycircle216edh/

And other than that, we did an old Mad Lib again, talked about the Rules Update, discussed the Event Decks, discussed briefly the results of the first DKA-ready SCG Open (which had the best name for a Legacy deck EVER) and mentioned the Super Bowl Halftime show and how much we love Betty White.  We hope you enjoy!

Daniel Beach is on Twitter: @Beach7125

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – For You (Mana Pool Mix) – music by Spruke, mixed by Daniel Beach

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-216-commander-month-a-day-at-the-beach-t763.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
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So we started with the general and went from there.  We took turns going around and naming off cards for the deck until we decided we had a good  base, and we stopped.  I know I’m just telling you stuff you know already, but I’m trying to take up room so there’s not a massive chunk of empty space on this post!  And it looks like I succeeded, so on to the list!

Treva, the Renewer
Chalice of Life
Aether Mutation
Aura Mutation
Azorius Guildmage
Essence Warden
Blood Clock
Rancor
Cradle of Vitality
Well of Lost Dreams
Muraganda Petroglyphs
Darien, King of Kjeldor
Mobilization
Gabriel Angelfire
Sun Droplet
Phyrexian Processor
Vigil for the Lost
Belltower Sphinx
Children of Korlis
Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
Patron of the Kitsune
Eldrazi Monument
Captain of the Watch
Awakening Zone
Ant Queen
Stir the Pride
Elder of Laurels
Aegis Angel
Emeria Angel
Luminarch Ascension
Words of Worship
Beast of Burden
Sylvan Library
Vitalizing Wind
Might of the Masses

So of course we’re going to do something with them!  Mike and I decided to stream a Winchester Draft, and we started with the Homelands box.  We were convinced that it would be better than the Winchesters that were done with the Ice Age packs he had found somewhere or other.  Ice Age was miserably short on creatures, and the drafts were pretty bad.  Homelands has a reputation for being terrible, but we were convinced that it would be a decent Limited environment, if for no other reason than the high number of creatures.

Oh yeah, before you click you should know that we are not at our usual PG rating in this video.  It was late on a Friday night and we were just having fun, so the filters came off.  Also, these have not been edited in any way.  You’ve been warned.

Because Homelands was packaged in bizarre 8-card boosters, instead of doing 3 packs apiece, we both grabbed 6 packs and shuffled them up.  If you don’t know how a Winchester Draft works, don’t worry.  I explained it in the video!  And you’ll be able to figure it out from watching anyway, because you’re clearly a smart person (otherwise you wouldn’t be here on our site).

The draft itself was pretty cool.  It was a walk down memory lane the ENTIRE time.  Watching The Baron, Scarface, Silent Bob, and especially Soraya the Crazy Bird Lady (see my Bird deck, she was the original inspiration) hit the table just made me all tingly.  We even had two of the cutest creatures EVER in this draft, the Clockwork Gnomes and Joven’s Ferrets!  Spoiler alert: I had them both in my deck!

And then we played some games with the decks we drafted!  Since there’s really no way to give you a decklist or anything now, you’ll just have to watch.  I ended up in white and green with small splashes in black and red (yes both, shut up).  Mike was playing blue and white with a bit of red…and 5 Dark Mazes.  What else do you need to know?

Let us know what you think! Should we post just the drafts in the future? Or the games too? I know the quality of my camera isn’t so hot, but Scott the webmaster has a better one I might be able to use in the future. We also know that our video setup was kind of lame, we’ll work on that too. But for any other constructive criticism, hit us with a comment!

Oh, and thanks to Scott, my roomie and webmaster here on the site for providing the camera along with the other Chewie’s voice in the intro and his locomotion in the outro.

General
Kaervek the Merciless

Land (36)
12 Swamp
Leechridden Swamp
Barren Moor
Polluted Mire
6 Mountain
Forgotten Cave
Smoldering Crater
Spinerock Knoll
Dragonskull Summit
Urborg Volcano
Akoum Refuge
Tainted Peak
Blood Crypt
Lavaclaw Reaches
Shadowblood Ridge
Rakdos Carnarium
Graven Cairns
Strip Mine
Temple of the False God
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

Artifacts (12)
Pristine Talisman
Sol Ring
Talisman of Indulgence
Rakdos Signet
Crystal Ball
Isolation Cell
Howling Mine
Font of Mythos
Teferi’s Puzzle Box
Iron Maiden
Skullcage
Venser’s Journal

Enchantments (12)
Baneful Omen
Haunted Crossroads
Wound Reflection
Polluted Bonds
Liability
Spellshock
Pestilence
Pyrohemia
Subversion
Underworld Dreams
Vicious Shadows
Phyrexian Arena

Creatures (27)
Lightning Reaver
Patron of the Nezumi
Thrashing Wumpus
Pestilence Demon
Urborg Syphon-Mage
Spiteflame Witch
Caustic Hound
Deathcurse Ogre
Netherborn Phalanx
Howling Banshee
Seizan, Perverter of Truth
Psychosis Crawler
Kederekt Parasite
Viseling
Massacre Wurm
Magma Phoenix
Reiver Demon
Dread Cacodemon
Abyssal Gatekeeper
Dread
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Balthor the Defiled
War Elemental
Urabrask the Hidden
Deathbringer Thoctar
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Mortivore

Other Spells (12)
Syphon Soul
Blood Tithe
Exsanguinate
Kaboom!
Breath of Malfegor
Syphon Mind
Syphon Flesh
Damnation
Black Sun’s Zenith
Decree of Pain
Blasphemous Act
Breath of Darigaaz

But of course, prerelease episodes are more than just Sealed tourney reports.  We also took the second half of the show to run through some of the listener mail that needs to be read on-air.  Rules questions, prerelease stories, and general hilarity.  Interspersed throughout the episode are rants and discussions of various things.  These things include lame intro packs, a good game of EDH at Lucky’s, Chewie not playing Thalia, Columbia House and BMG, and this one highly obnoxious guy who seems to run through the whole account of the prerelease.  We hope you enjoy!

Also, there were a few URLs from emails that we agreed to share with everyone:
Ace’s Altered Art – http://AcesAlteredArt.com
Bury St. Edmunds Wargaming Club – http://burywargamers.blogspot.com/

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Easy by Laura By Spruke – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybRVsCwDTqc

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-215-dka-prerelease-and-mailbag-t760.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
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Of course, we’re gonna talk about the rest of the Dark Ascension spoiler now that it’s all been revealed.  (Sorry I didn’t get this up before the Prerelease, but it’s not like we’re giving you any vital information, right?)  But before that, we have to talk about what we think should go into a From the Vault: Casual.  We kicked around a lot of ideas both good and bad.  What would you put in there?

Of course, there’s plenty of discussion of the flavor of certain cards, Bryan being old, the price of chase rares, how a Justin Bieber shirt almost destroyed Bryan’s life, Edward G. Robinson, website development, Magic as Satan’s Game, and lots of other nonsense.  And what episode would be complete without a little dig or two at Chris Lansdell?  HOpe you guys enjoy all this random conversating as much as we did!

Find Bryan and Christian over on http://avantcardshow.com

Intro and Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Double Dragon (Opening Theme) by Kazunaka Yamane

Be sure to check out all the great stuff on the website! – http://themanapool.com

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-214-crisis-ii-dork-harder-dka-preview-3-t757.html
Check out our archive at http://themanapool.com
Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/TheManaPool
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The Set-Up
When I first got into the Commander format (still known as EDH at the time), I decided to go in relatively hard.  My very first deck was a Scion of the Ur-Dragon build, focused on rolling up with the namesake as often as possible and casting cool dragons when he was otherwise indisposed.  The format was a blast, and I looked forward to building my next deck, waiting for inspiration to strike me.  Whether for good or bad, I ended up participating in and hearing anecdotes of several Commander games where players weren’t as interested in what I felt was the “normal” back-and-forth rhythm of the game, hiding behind protective wards and various utility creatures and repeatedly wiping the board until the game eventually ended in someone’s infinite combo.  I found these experiences frustrating, and started thinking about a way to make players stay engaged in the interactive and combative side of Magic – what I see as the “real” game – whether they wanted to or not.  Fumiko the Lowblood is a card that had been moving between a couple of my decks for several years, but was currently taking a break in my trade binder.  She immediately struck me as the perfect choice for a Commander who could really keep control and combo players off-balance and not bother aggro players much at all.  Knowing that a fair amount of aggression would understandably be directed my way, I dug deep into many of the strange and useful defensive creatures and effects available to my Commander’s color identity, and I felt pretty clever for it.

The deck was rampantly un-good.  I won’t waste space posting the initial decklist here (Commander lists take up a lot of scroll-time, and are a real pain to link up), but you can go to the revision history of the deck on Tapped Out to see the first build and subsequent changes.  Yeah, I had a few quirky dragons and several creatures with good firebreathing effects to hand out damage, but there were a ton of cards that just didn’t do very much at all.  I had lots of trouble making any progress during the course of a game, the threats I had weren’t good enough to overcome the mass of non-threats, and many cards just didn’t work out to be as good as I thought they would be.  I aired my concerns on Tapped Out, with my friends, and in an episode of the podcast.  The feedback I got was very helpful, especially one particularly well-written piece of tough love from a listener.  I went back and forth many times between feeling highly appreciative and personally offended at the tone and content of that post, but the listener was absolutely right:  I had built a non-red deck with all red cards, and the result was appropriately dumb and terrible.  I took much of the advice, and made a great many changes for the better, but still ran into problems.  After getting annoyed during recent games with some of the same old issues coming up, I decided to take another hard look at the deck.

Identifying Problems
When it came down to it, the two major problems in the deck’s structure that were still holding it back were the inclusion of cards that were purely defensive, and the inclusion of cards that had a dual defensive/offensive nature but whose non-defensive uses just weren’t useful enough.

Purely Defensive Cards
I need cards that do something, rather than just sit there and stop other things from happening (the type of play I built this deck to discourage).  There were still a number of purely defensive walls left in the deck, having made the cut because I felt they were the top examples of what my color identity could accomplish in terms of defensive creatures, some even going so far as to be inappropriate, based on the modern understanding of the color wheel.  These included AEther Membrane (bounce block), Living Wall (easy regenerating), Wall of Earth (extremely cheap toughness), Wall of Heat (same, plus power), and Wall of Stone (same, minus power).  All of them are really great walls, but that’s it.  None of them perform a single proactive function, so they need to go if I’m really going to reform this deck.  The other remaining purely defensive card was Urza’s Armor (hit me, I don’t care), which really hurt to cut, but I had to stay dedicated to the fix.

Cards that Aren’t Useful Enough
There were also several “cute” ideas left in the deck for effects I thought would work well with the theme.  Cute deck ideas are rarely ever good ideas, and these cards didn’t break any barriers.  Regardless of how useful they looked on paper, they just didn’t work out to be practical or notable in any real games they showed up in.  Cards in this category included Accorder’s Shield (attack and block with no worries), Chaosphere (just to mess with people), Fiery Fall (removal and Valakut support), Rage Nimbus (I think I’ve only activated it once, ever), Snow Fortress (less than once), and Strandwalker (yay spider time).  Dumping these to make room for better cards can only help me.

Basalt Monolith was also cut from the deck, but not because it wasn’t good.  It’s because I wanted to set it aside for a Sharuum the Hegemon Commander deck I’m planning.  I promise any infinite combos that end up in the deck will be purely accidental. (Hey, that sounds awfully familiar – Chewie)

Solving Problems
So what should I use to replace passive and lame cards?  Aggressive and good cards, of course!  I’ll just address them alphabetically in the discussions below.

Aggressive and Proactive Cards
Now I’m not talking about suddenly loading up on the most vicious and cutthroat creatures and effects available to the deck.  What I want are cards that can run around and punch people, but are still in touch with the fun spirit of the deck.  For example, it’s not too difficult to dump artifact mana into Eron the Relentless‘ casting cost and have enough red mana available to attack and regenerate.  Grand Melee serves as an extra copy of Fumiko’s most important ability, with the added twist that players can’t just skip blocking and take the damage if they don’t want their untapped creatures getting involved.  Hero of Oxid Ridge will improve my attackers, and also gets annoying chump blockers out of my way.  If I can get up to the mana required to cast Pathrazer of Ulamog, he turns into a terrifying and incredibly hard to block attacker who can really put someone on the back foot.  Reckless Charge can make almost any creature a terrifying attacker, and it’s a single card that can be used twice, which is especially good for a Commander deck that doesn’t have a lot of ways to draw cards.  Slith Firewalker can start running up on people before the game really even begins, and he’s the perfect kind of attacker to have if there aren’t any blockers available.  Tuktuk the Explorer can go back and forth and annoy opponents, and is really nice to have if someone feels the need to wipe the board.

Card that are Just Good
Any other support cards I choose have to be worthy of the deck and the fixes I’m making.  I can’t just add in more things that only amount to more “hey, that’s kind of funny” types of effects.  Yes, Battle Rampart is a wall, but it probably won’t be blocking very often for how useful its ability is.  A suggestion I’ve gotten multiple times for this deck is Insurrection, and considering this is a red deck that would rather win by attacking, it’s high time it got added to the list.  Lightning Greaves is a Commander staple that has somehow eluded this deck all this time, and I decided to remedy that.  With creatures running around and getting into trouble in combat, I think Rockslide Elemental is a cheap way to build a very scary creature, but he’s the one card in this group that will require the most monitoring for true usefulness.  Sword of Vengeance is a great way to make an attacker and blocker that mean business, and it’s not very mana-intensive at all.

Thran Dynamo is the replacement for the Monolith.  I think that’s a decent trade.

The Deck
So here’s the full decklist after the changes, hopefully for the better.  Let me know what you think about it in the comments here and on the Tapped Out page.  As of publication, I haven’t played any actual games with it, but I’m feeling very comfortable with the updates and very optimistic as well.  It looks like we’re finally ready to get in there and throw some elbows.

General
Fumiko the Lowblood

Land (38)
Arid Mesa
Bloodstained Mire
Contested War Zone
Dust Bowl
Evolving Wilds
Grixis Panorama
Jund Panorama
Maze of Ith
15x Mountain
Mountain Valley
Naya Panorama
Quicksand
Rocky Tar Pit
Sandstone Needle
Scalding Tarn
Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
Shivan Gorge
Strip Mine
Tectonic Edge
Temple of the False God
Terramorphic Expanse
Thawing Glaciers
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Wasteland

Creatures (29)
Akroma, Angel of Fury
Balefire Dragon
Battle Rampart
Conquering Manticore
Darksteel Gargoyle
Darksteel Sentinel
Duplicant
Eron the Relentless
Hateflayer
Hellkite Igniter
Hero of Oxid Ridge
Hoarding Dragon
Hoard-Smelter Dragon
Homura, Human Ascendant
Inferno Titan
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Kuldotha Phoenix
Lord of Shatterskull Pass
Mordant Dragon
Palladium Myr
Pathrazer of Ulamog
Rockslide Elemental
Slith Firewalker
Steel Hellkite
Thopter Assembly
Tuktuk the Explorer
Two-Headed Dragon
Valakut Fireboar
Wurmcoil Engine

Non-Creatures (32)
Aftershock
Chain Reaction
Disaster Radius
Expedition Map
Fissure
Foriysian Totem
Grand Melee
Grim Monolith
Heart of Ramos
Insurrection
Jayemdae Tome
Journeyer’s Kite
Lava Flow
Lightning Greaves
Loxodon Warhammer
Mana Vault
Nevinyrral’s Disk
Oblivion Stone
Phyrexian Grimoire
Phyrexian Processor
Predator, Flagship
Reckless Charge
Serum Tank
Slice and Dice
Sol Ring
Starstorm
Stone Idol Trap
Strata Scythe
Sword of Vengeance
Thran Dynamo
Thunderstaff
Worn Powerstone

Have fun, guys.